A Spark for Adventure

"Jax, is the landing actuator primed and ready for take off?"

"Yes Kevin, I have it primed."

"Jax, I am your Uncle."

"Okay Kevin…….. Uncle Kevin," Jax said with a quiet smirk.

"Oh you little blastering moonfly of a child, finger on the primer," Uncle Kevin shot back. Jax noticed he had successfully annoyed his uncle. Satisfied, he switched his mind into focusing on the takeoff. Positioning his thumb over the button, ready to help the O'Malley take off for the first time. The O'Malley was his uncle's "self-proclaimed pirate ship", but it really was a junked starship. He loved hanging out with his dad's brother, but Kevin wasn't the sharpest space shovel in a moon dome. 

"Jax, hit the button," Uncle Kevin yelled enthusiastically! Jax smashed the button and the O'Malley rose into the sky. It was a piece of junk, with a hodgepodge of different starship parts, but nonetheless, the rust bucket was off the ground! As the O'Malley hovered off the ground, Uncle Kevin aligned the gyros, pointed the blunt nose of the ship into the atmosphere, and after the angle was just right, hit the thruster throttle to propel the ship into the atmosphere. Within a minute the O'Malley blasted through the atmosphere of the planet into space, like a Scramrat running from a Lyon Panther. Both Kevin and Jax were speechless as the maiden voyage was happening, the O'Malley was actually flying into space!

"Uncle! We are actually in space," shouted Jax. Both of them just sat in silence, staring off into the cosmos, mesmerized by it. This was a first for Jax. They always joked and dreamed about being in the stars, but it was just that, a dream. Even though humans had discovered space flight & sub-light speeds that allowed for inter-system travel, it was still new, and quite expensive. If an individual had a starship, they either paid good money for it, or had a very wealthy connection. In Uncle Kevin's case, he was good at picking scrap, and talented with a Magwrench.

After a couple of minutes of silence, Uncle Kevin started to jump up and down from his chair, yelling in a jubilant cheer. He unbuckled his seatbelt, and ran over to Jax, picking him up in the air. Uncle Kevin might not be the smartest, but by the Creator, he is strong. "Jax we did it, we did it!"

"Uncle, stop for a second!"

"Jax we did it," still cheering unaware.

"UNCLE! THE SHIP," screamed Jax

Uncle looked in the direction of Jax's dismay, and saw the ship starting to nose dive back into the planet. "OH FRACK", exclaimed Uncle as he was running over to the flight stick. Grabbing the makeshift stick, probably made with a Magbat, pulled it back as far as he could, bringing the diving ship into orbit again. "Whew, crisis averted," sighed Uncle Kevin.

Checking his pants to make sure he didn't just pee in the commotion, Jax found his way back into the co-pilot chair. "Okay Uncle, where are we going?"

"We're going to the old mining factory on Asteroid 4A1. We are gonna go get,” paused for suspense”, the "Francion Crystal"."

"Uncle, you have to be joking, that thing is a fairy tale. There is no crystal that would give someone psionic powers, hell, those powers don't even exist in the first place," Jax jeered.

"Ah Jax, you are a smart kid, smarter than me in my old age, but you don't know how to think with your gut"

"You're right, I think with my brain. You think and eat with that thing!" 

Laughing off the small jab from his nephew," If you want to head back home, I can put you in the escape pod?" 

Contemplating this choice for a second, Jax looked outside the ship's window. He saw heavenly bodies that he could only dream of, the bright glow of Nova Terra 4 and the surrounding planets in the system. He was in space! He had finally made it, a poor factory worker’s son, in fracking space! Even if they were going on a dumb adventure for the Franocian Crystal of mystical powers, or whatever Scramrat crap was said about it, how could he turn down the opportunity to explore the cosmos, somewhere he had always dreamed to be. Jax turned back to his uncle with a slight grin on his face, "Okay, let's go find the Franocian  Crystal!"

Uncle grinned back because of witnessing a spark of faith in his cynical nephew. He knew Jax had a hard life, especially with his mom's passing, and dad working overtime at the factories, but life was more than cynicism.  

"Alright, ready Jax, I need you to input the coordinates into the navicomputer. Handing Jax the dusty, dark-brown paper journal, Jax flipped to the page with the tab, listing the coordinates to the factory. He remembered from his schooling that the factory was abandoned due to a filtration issue and piracy, but pirates haven't been a part of the Nova System for a while now.

Just as Jax had finished inputting the last coordinates, Uncle shouted, "Hold on!"

"Uncle wait, my seatbe……." said Jax as he was interrupted by the engaged planetary thrusters. 

As the nebulas and stars passed by, both Uncle Kevin and Jax resumed their previous silence of awe. They would have talked about Magball as they normally do, especially the Nova Swingers, Jax's favorite team, but the view took the place of the necessity of trivial conversation. They were in amazement at the heavenly bodies they could only see on a clear day down on their homeworld. Now they were seeing the colors of the stars, seeing life for what it was, not shackled to a planetary perspective, but a heavenly one. Jax had always lived in the city, and had only known one way of life. Occasionally he would go see his uncle on the outskirts of town, but the city was always in view. Now, he saw everything for what it was, he was seeing from the heavens! Jax starred, lost in his mind looking off into the cosmos again, dreaming of adventures.

Uncle Kevin interrupted him," Jax there it is, the mining base." As soon as Uncle finished speaking the factory came into vision. A massive rock floating gently in front of an asteroid belt, with a matte, metallic modular cubed structure resting on top of it. "Alright let's land on it!" Uncle said excitedly. 

Uncle began to maneuver ever so delicately to the factory's landing pad. He might have been a clumsy man, but when it came to flying, he was as focused as a surgeon performing surgery, knowing the risks of life and death involved. 

"Uncle, where did you learn to fly like this? You're actually good! You just sit around watching Magball most of the day," Jax said.

"I use to fly in the Colonial Defense Force in my earlier years," Uncle said softly as he was focusing on landing on the derelict landing pad, covered in space debris, "and after I took a job as a Space Trucker, flying between outposts,"

"That's actually cool," Jax mentioned under his breath.

Smitten a little by the apparent compliment from his nephew, "Thanks Jax," said Uncle as he took his eyes off the cockpit window, landing the ship harder than he needed too. "Oh, my bad, never take your eyes off the road….. or in this case space," Uncle said for his own humoring. 

"Here we are, Mining Base 4A1. I have the blueprint and schematics for the building, follow me. Jax and Uncle rose from their seats heading to the midsection of the ship where a makeshift control center was, with a monitor and some computing gizmos attached to it. It isn't Colonial official, but Uncle can make anything function. He inserted a data cartridge into the computing system, and after a couple seconds, the screen flashed different shades of green, finally resting on a darker shade of green. The screen seemed to produce a quiet hum as well. "Ah, this old beau' might take some time, but it never fails."

"Yea, whatever you say Uncle."

"Alright, here is the layout," pointing to the screen, "We are here on the landing pad. I need you to…"

"WAIT," squealed Jax, "What do you mean ME!? Why do I have to go there by MYself! Oh no, I have seen too many Dramatics on SpaceNet, I'm not going alone," blared Jax, as he started to breathe heavily.

"Buddy, it will be okay! I have to watch the ship. I’ll track you from here," affirmed Uncle as he reached for a nearby cabinet underneath the computing hodgepodge, pulling out a low-impact space suit. "Use this, and don't worry, it has a tracker on it as well. I have the frequency tuned to the ship so I can monitor you from here, and know exactly where you are!" 

Jax reached for the suit, and immediately his eyes lit up, igniting a creative spirit of adventure. It was his Uncle's old Colonial Defense Force uniform, a faded cardinal red suit, with the official CDF patch. It might be old, but it's still top of the line, with rebreather hardware, and a CO2 recycler, and O2 maker, this baby could be self-sufficient for a long time. "Just don't forget to change the filters", Jax thought to himself, but was reassured when he checked the hardware on the back.

"Put it on Jax, it might be a little big, but you'll grow into it." Jax started to put the suit on. It was a little roomy, but otherwise snug. "Ah you remind me when I was a young guy," Uncle said, reminiscing, "Things were a little different, but I had that same spark in my eye as I see in yours. You are ready for adventure. You have the tools, a ship, and a suit, but most importantly, you have the spark. Every true pirate…."

 "Uncle, you know pirates are scumbags, they just take and pillage. They're some lawless sons of chaos," Jax interjected. 

"Yea I know they are some no good, scally bubbling sodcakes," chuckled Uncle Kevin, "but they have one thing you'll never see on Nova Terra…..a craving for adventure. There isn't much to admire from the profession, but man do they adventure well."

"Whatever you say Uncle. Well, I'm off, guide me with the commlink when I'm out, yea?" asked Jax.

"Yea, don't worry, there isn't anything out there… but that Franocian Crystal"

"IT'S NOT REAL!" shot back Jax.

"I guess I'm more of a child then you, now go," Uncle said as a response, as he guided Jax to the airlock. Jax secured his rig, initiating the pressurizing and stabilizing of his suit, and locking his helmet. With a loud sound of air rushing throughout the airlock, the rusted door leading to the cabin screeched shut, while almost immediately, the door leading to space swung open. 

Jax began to walk outside of the ship, into SPACE! This was not only his first time flying in space, but now it was his first time walking in space! The suit creaked a little, and he thought he heard a leak, but no, it was in his head. He began to walk to the mining base when a loud crackling sound overwhelmed the slendered, paint scratched helmet.

"Hello, Jax…..Hello, can you hear me?" Uncle said loudly.

Scrambling to find the volume knob for the commlink, he finally found the half-broken knob, and turned it down, "Yes I can hear you clearly, and way too loud." 

Uncle chuckled, "Alright, well if you look at your forearm, you'll see a little screen. I sent a map layout to that datapad. You can use it to navigate through the factory." 

Jax looked down to his right arm, noticing the dust covered screen, which was fitted so well to the contour of the sleeve. "I got it Uncle," said Jax as he turned on the screen. The map layout of the factory glowed on his screen, highlighting the section where the crystal was located. "I'll see you when I find the crystal, or something cool to bring home!"

"Okay, be careful, don't get your suit caught on anything," Uncle said cautiously. Jax turned around at the entrance of the factory, faced the O'Malley and saluted Uncle, smiling at the facts of their current situation. He found the flashlight head attachment, flicked it on, and proceeded to head into the mining base.

"Creator, this factory has been abandoned for a while," Jax said to himself as he began to navigate the debris scattered on the factory's main floor. There were barrels, beams, plates of metal from the wall, and old tractors fitted for space use. He checked his forearm, and followed the path to the blinking light. He exited the main floor into a cramped hallway with structural beams littering the hall, like a laser security system on the Dramatics he used to watch. It was the one with the cool spy who would always have the wit, the girl, and the…. BAM. Jax smacked his head on one of the beams. Gasping, he checked the helmet to see if it cracked, but being military-grade, it held, not receiving an additional scratch. Comforted by the fact of the high-quality suit, Jax resumed his journey to the alleged crystal. As he approached the end of the long hallway, he found a ladder that led down for quite a ways. 

"I found a ladder, is this the way Uncle?"

"It should be. The issue with this map is that it doesn't show elevation," pausing to take a moment to think, Uncle continued, "it's worth a shot." A little shaken by the change in his expectation, Jax grasped the railings, turned his body to face the dilapidated yellow ladder, and began to descend into the asteroid. It seemed that he was climbing down for about five minutes before he reached the mine shaft. A slight rise in his anxiety began to kick in as he emerged into the darkness of the cavern. Jax stepped off the ladder, and began to observe his surroundings. The cavern was big, but empty, with an ominous and marvelous feeling, kind of like how he felt in space. He checked his forearm and saw he was nearly at the site. It should just be around the corner to the left. He continued to walk with a hint of caution in his steps.

As he got near the corner, he noticed a low hum of light, and it seemed to be a shade of red, or…. purple... it was definitely purple. His heart began to race slightly, "could this be the crystal Uncle was talking about," he thought to himself. As he turned the corner, he saw it! A purple crystal, about a couple inches tall and wide, emitting a purple glow. It seemed to be perfectly cut as well, slightly lodged in the rock. He couldn't believe his eyes, of course, the magic wasn't real, but by the Creator they would be rich. Jax ran over to the crystal and picked it up. He was holding it, his ticket out of poverty! He started to think about all the ways to spend the money, yet he noticed something strange. The crystal started to emit white light, and it got brighter, and brighter, and brighter. Jax tried to get rid of the crystal by throwing it, but it stuck to his gloves! It wasn't coming off. No matter how hard he tried it wouldn't, and then the most gut-wrenching screech came from the crystal, disorienting him. He couldn't hear from the screech, or see from the blinding light of the crystal. His senses were overloaded, and suddenly ….a white light followed by… silence.

The white light began to be eclipsed by shades of darker colors. Jax opened his eyes, and saw the sky…. WAIT A SKY! He was in space, how is he on a planet! He rose quickly and stood to his feet, but immediately collapsed to the ground. He decided to try to sit instead. 

"Where am I," Jax said to himself as he saw the tropical paradise he found himself in. There were white sand beaches, palm trees that looked like the ones on earth, and water, with ever so gentle waves crashing on the shore. 

He seemed alone, in this distant world. He tried the comms to call Uncle, screaming into it out of desperation, but nothing... just static. He was alone, by himself.  He scanned the records, and the planet wasn't even charted. He examined the O2 levels, and it seemed to be appropriate for humans, so he removed his helmet and felt the wind on his face. He closed his eyes to compose himself, and make sense of what was happening. Suddenly he remembered… the crystal! He reached into his pocket to check, and there it was, lightly glowing, but quiet as a Lyon Panther. Well, he might have been stranded on an uncharted planet, but at least he had a ticket to riches. He had no optimism, but this crystal was just the sliver of hope he needed.

"Aye, boi', I think you have something of mine. I am gonna have to ask for it, and I rather just ask this once," said an unknown figure. Jax turned around and saw a man, dressed almost fully like, wait, like a pirate from the Dramatics? Oh blast, this can't be true. Jax looked a bit past the man and saw a starship, with about ten other humans outside of it preoccupied with moving crates. The unknown figure asserted himself to regain the attention of Jax, "Boi', please, for the last time," pulling out a kinetic revolver, cocking the hammer back, and pointing it to Jax's face, "give me the crystal……"